“It’s fully contained. There’s no way to open the casing without triggering it to explode. I should have thought of this. It requires a signal hack to shut it down. It’s the perfect device for a Markus Model to use.”

Stag connected with his ship. “Send Hellion now.”

It took a few minutes. The burly cyborg entered and came to a dead stop, openly gawking at the woman. “Dreams really do come true. I am definitely up for this mission.”

“Shut up,” Stag snapped, imagining where the male’s thoughts had gone. “The bed is rigged with an explosive device.”

“It’s a reguletta 643AB9,” Veller informed him. “You have much better hacking skills than I do with devices like these. Can you shut it off?”

Hellion kept staring at the woman.

“Do it,” Stag growled. “Stop staring at her.”

“I’m working and appreciating the view,” Hellion muttered. “I can multitask.” A slight hum sounded. Hellion grinned. “It’s off. Can I cut her down?”

Stag holstered his weapon and grabbed the blade strapped to his outer thigh. He gripped the post and lifted his leg, stepping up onto the bed. He got right in front of the woman, looking down at her. “What’s your name?”

“Captain Nala Vestria.”

He bent, slashing at the binds at her ankles. Her legs immediately dropped together. He threw her over his shoulder. She didn’t weigh much. He turned, holding her in place as he jumped off the bed. She gasped.

He snagged the bedding off the mattress and tossed it over the top of her. Veller and Hellion stared at him.

Stag pointed to the door. “Finish transferring what cargo you can onto our ship. I’ve got her.”

“I’d be more than happy to carry her.” Hellion held out his arms. “I know you don’t like Earthers.”

“Put me down!” the woman demanded. She wiggled against his shoulder. “I can walk.”

He reached up and placed a hand on her lower back, pinning her to his shoulder, hooking his other arm tighter around her legs. The blanket covered her lower body. “You weren’t here when she said she’d buy me if I’d been in an ad for sex bots.”

Hellion’s arms dropped and his mouth parted, shock slackening his features. Veller arched both eyebrows but masked his reaction otherwise.

“I saved her life, so she owes me. My price is, she’s going to know what it feels like to be treated like an android. I won’t harm her—but I will teach her a lesson. Follow my orders.” He strode forward, carrying the woman out of the room.

“I technically saved her,” Hellion called out. “I want to be her sex bot.”

“Over my dead body.” Stag kept going.

Chapter Two

Nala struggled but the big bastard was strong and fast. It didn’t help that her skin was slick from the cleansing unit he’d shoved her into. He blocked her route to the door, grabbed the clothes he’d slung over his shoulder and offered them to her.

She identified each piece. He must have ordered one of his men to collect some of her things from her ship. She took the pants and shirt, quickly putting them on.

“You’re confined to quarters. I’ve blocked your ability to control anything inside the room.” He crossed his arms over his chest and backed away. “You’ll find clean bedding in the storage drawer in the wall, next to the end of the bunk. I expect the sheets to be changed when I get back, and for you to have also picked up the room.” He pointed out the laundry chute, the panel where he kept some cleaning supplies stored, and then smiled. “I’ll think up other tasks for you later today. Right now, I have things to do.”

She just gaped at him, stunned.

“I always wanted a cleaning android. Now I have one.”

“Have you gone crazy?”

“I’m angry. I’m tired of you Earthers thinking cyborgs are animated robots with gray flesh. I’m as sentient as you are. It’s irritating to be treated otherwise. You’ll learn. Get to work, droid.”

“I won’t.”

“You have to earn your food. That should motivate you to do as you’re told.” He spun, touched the panel by the door, and it opened. He left fast, the door sealing her inside.

Nala stood there, reeling. He meant it.

She glanced around his quarters. They were already clean. Some of her crew were messy, but Stag definitely wasn’t. “Son of a bitch.”

The door opened and she spun, expecting him to have returned, maybe tell her he’d been joking.

A new cyborg came in, carrying a medical scanner and a case.

“I’m a medic. Take a seat, Nala.”

She moved to the only place to sit and rested her behind on the edge of the bed. The cyborg turned on his scanner, running it over her head, then lower.

“Do you have a name or number to call you?”

“Maze. Are you experiencing any pain? Headache? Ringing in your ears? Metallic taste in your mouth?”

“I have a little bit of a headache but I was knocked out twice.”

“That’s what I heard. They seemed to have managed not to bruise your face with the strikes but I see a little redness.” He crouched, running the scanner over her arms, then her middle section, and down both of her legs. He twisted, set down the scanner, and opened the case to withdraw a small box.

She immediately tensed when he withdrew an injector and tapped the control pad on the end of it. “What are you going to do?”

“You have no internal bleeding, no fractures, no concussion or broken bones. I also checked for any implants the Markus Models might have tagged you with.” He looked at her then. “They didn’t chip you for tracking.”

That was a horrible thought she hadn’t considered. “Good.”

“I’m giving you a mild dosage for pain to alleviate the headache and I’m taking a blood sample to run. I can get a better scope of your medical history that way. Have you been fully inoculated for space travel?”

“Yes.”

“Excellent. Wrist, please.”

She lifted one, exposing the bruising there.

He paused, touched the control pad, and sighed.

“What?”

“I didn’t notice the bruising. It’s severe. I’ve adjusted the medication I’m giving you to include something that will help you heal faster.”